Upon the eve of this year, the Emperor commanded his empire to war. General Rhagabe is given the order to raise an army and put it to clash against the vile Ottoman Turk.
Receiving his orders, he breaks to raise the aforementioned army. Over the course of the next months, he sees thousands of men raised in a colossal army.
Once more, armies march forth from Constantinople, forming into a stable marching order just outside of the eastern gate, ferried across the straits under heavy guard from ships.
Two-thousand Skoutatoi march in ordered columns, chain glinting in the sun as the sound of their boots rapidly becomes a single, crashing sound of motion. The tips of pikes catch the sunlight as well, showing fresh-forged razor-sharpness. Their shields are mounted on their backs for ease of transport.
Just behind them come the Toxotai, a smaller group than the Skoutatoi, but still massive, coming at over one-thousand men. All of them carry a heavy crossbow, so powerful it needs a crank to draw. They provide another colossal source of noise, keeping their marching columns in formation with the Skoutatoi ahead.
After them roll the artillery of the Empire, first, the Scorpions, powerful bolt-loosing machines they are, being pulled by horses and accompanied by fussing engineers, behind those sit the duo of cannons, colossal iron things drawn by teams of horses and managed by engineers, their black powder kept far away behind, pulled by significantly more expendable horses and managed by apprentices.
Finally, comes the honour guard of Kataphraktoi, a mere twenty-five of them, General Rhagabe amongst them in fine Imperial colours, befitting an agent of the Emperor. The Kataphraktoi gleam resplendently in the sun, showering the watching crowds with their glory.
And with that pomp and glory, these young men march to cause death and carnage for their Emperor and their God, fearless and brave.
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An assault upon the Ottoman Family, Command structure and Messenger service.
160 Stavraton+10 Skilled Manpower. (260)-80 (Royal Family Defenses)-20 (Ottoman Commanders)
Target-160. Crit Range 1-11.
Roll=8 (Starting off like this then)
It's an assault in the night, a critical endeavour, seeing some of the most skilled assassins in the world put to use. Handsomely paid for the lives of dozens, they ride out whisper-quiet from Constantinople, covering vast tracts of land at a constant gallop, even as their horses die.
The city of Bursa eventually comes into sight, the new capital of the Turks in all of its admittedly modest glory. The assassins make their way in the night, passing off as weary travellers. They make their way towards the palace, a few splitting off to handle the generals, whilst an even smaller number prepares to burn down their messenger's services.
And in the night, their mission sees success. In the Sultan's palace, guards are killed in their sleep, viciously stabbed, shot with bolts or otherwise murdered from surprise. Sneaking into the palace, further atrocities take place as the entire royal family is butchered in their sleep, no one is safe, and in a short, silent period of time, the House of Ottoman lies near-extinguished.
Elsewhere across the city, generals lie in bed surrounded by lovers of their preference. None of them sees the blades coming, stabbed to death in bed, with no chance of retort. A silent death for brave warriors.
Finally, fires are set to the messenger's stables and quarters, burning them, their horses and their papers at the same time. Screams fill the city as the guards move to save the building rather than discover their dead and dying rulers.
As the assassins ride out, speckled with blood upon stolen horses, the city screams behind them, roaring with the fire and sin done within it.
Do you feel like heroes yet? House of Ottoman taken off the board, Ottoman central command gone.
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Research the Monsters and other Supernatural phenomenon.
150 Stavraton+10 Skilled Manpower (250)-100 (First foray into the unnatural)
Roll=88 (Success)
The foray begins steadily, funding powering the hiring of brave, nearly suicidal mercenaries to capture monsters, diving into texts most ancient and forbidden, as well as attempting long-since thought to be false rituals.
The first efforts of reading go relatively well, a new horror is discovered in the fact that some tomes now seek to devour readers, whilst others force you to attempt shoddy demon summonings. This is quickly curtailed by placing guards on the scholars as they read, reducing total fatalities, though scholarly fatalities do go up.
The second discovery is of the long-thought false rituals, they are indeed false. But, with some reading and maximum effort, our occultists have finally developed working magic, one of them can light a candle with a whisper, whilst another can take a potion to render themselves unconscious, yet scry as of yet unseen realms. The last one may be drugging himself.
The third, actually useful discovery is from your physicians, using the ample money dedicated to them to hire mercenaries willing to attempt capture of monsters. Many men go out, very few return, but they do return with a bestial, dog-like thing, standing at seven feet tall, with gnarled limbs ending in gleaming claws whilst its fur twists and manges, giving it a rotting, monstrous appearance.
The physicians then proceed to cut, stab, burn, prod and every other thing they can think of to learn what hurts these things. They learn much, but the most important things are these. The monsters can heal, not quickly enough to be an issue in battle, but quickly enough to be trouble in war. Silver seems to stop this, salt seems to slow it.
The monsters fear but are not repelled by symbols of Our Lord God and his son Jesus Christ, driven into a rage when they are nearby. A cross the size of a house was commissioned and seemed to terrify the lone beast into a catatonic state until it was removed.
Beyond that, on complete accident, it was discovered that one of the physicians was a monster via exposure to the same extremely large cross, as they screamed after a few moments of exposure and shed their skin. The guards assigned to the room promptly stabbed him to death with silver spatha.
Silver hurts them, salt slows them down, the cross terrifies them. Also, everyone who gets within a hundred yards of the Emperor or anyone important now has to take communion in front of a giant silver cross.
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Military Occupation of Anatolia.
Central command structure ruined. Casualties are non-existent.
The conquest of Anatolia is significantly less glorious than General Rhagabe hoped for, mostly consisting of occupying coastal villages, taking them in a quick assault. Over the course of the next few months, he leads his army up and down Anatolia, controlling much of it before local warlords begin to offer resistance.
All told, in under a year, the Anatolian coastline is brought back into the Byzantine fold all the way to the realm of Karaman to the south and the realm of Trebizond in the north. Both offer enough resistance to not be worth testing without more preparation in the mind of General Rhagabe.
Congrats, that crit was nasty. The Anatolian coastline is somewhat retaken, heartland turned to warlords too quickly to take but is just disorganized Warlords.
+2000 Manpower a Turn.
+200 Stavraton a turn.
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The East
The East currently is filled with the realm of Trebizond, a "successor state" to the Empire, refusing the rule of Purple. Karaman, a Turkic realm that refuted both Ottoman and Imperial rule and the warlord states of the former Ottoman Turks.
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The West
The Vampire lord seems to have decided that the independence of the towns was not to be allowed anymore. In a single night of chaos, the walls were breached with sheer muscle. A vampires strength shattering the stone.
Monsters poured in but surprisingly did not kill everyone. Instead, these towns are taken by the rule of Count Puscas, a supposed ruler of mortals and monsters. He lays claims to all lands within his grasp by right of Hell and even sent an envoy to us, who was quickly boiled in blessed tar.
Otherwise, the other states move, but your information network does not extend that far.
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The Sea
The Sea stays calm, the naval garrison of the Great City covering both the straits and new coastline of the realm. Great fisheries come back to life as they are manned and guarded by good Roman men rather than Turkish slave workers. The monsters do seem to be getting braver, however.
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The Heartland
Farmland spreads into the east, returning Anatolia to the land of plenty it once was, now for the Throne instead. Peasants welcome Roman rule rather than harsh Turk taxes and religious pressure, flocking to sell their food to new, rich buyers or sign up with the professional army.
Currently, problems are nil and the Empire is resurgent!
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This was a pretty solid turn, honestly. All the economic documents are updated and ready to go, this is both the results of the last turn and the beginning of the current one, go ahead and immediately start discussion as you wish!
